GM President . . . time to electrify and educate

Well his comments might even be refleting some of GMs past problems he notes

As an Eng Prof I see how woefully prepared many of today's students are, and how few want to pursue science and engineering because its hard work.

As he was speaking at an SAE conference .. it was nice to see him talk about deeper issues not just do some GM chest beating about what they've done.

 

Bob, what do you mean by "time to electricy" ?

 

Critical thinking is so ... well... critical to society, I would love to see more of it actually taught in our schools.

 

There is a reason why engineers have almost full employment numbers. 2%-ish across the board, with some in the 0.6% range.

We have had positions open at my company since I started here that haven't been filled. We just can't find smart people.

 

Given what I've seen from today's high-school and universities I am against the "critical thinking" paradigms, especially as they are being taught. I've spoken on this at national conferences, and had some interesting debates. "Critical thinking" is a skill often espoused and claim to be included in "a scientific" courses more focused on philosophy or humanities -- as a way to suggest they have broader value. In my experience those that have taken course that stress "critical thinking" it often reduces students ability to actually solve problems -- they learn to (and are often pretty good at) what "they think" about something, but don't learn to take a multi-perspective view (i.e. one persons negative maybe another's positive) and generally don't go farther to solving problems. Many of the courses/text try to be too general and use classical problems, for which there is either just a trick, or no meaningful solution. They don't assess where to get data for decision making, how to assess the quality of data, how to analyze resources and contraints, how to analyze people and organizations and many other elements fundamental. Students that have taken such "critical thinking" courses often see failure in each option they can think of, and thus suffer from analysis paralysis. They are quick to question and debate, but slow to action. While "critical thinking" material can help students that have a poor though process, it often leads them astray by focusing on the wrong things.

In engineering and science we stress analytical thinking, and in our innovation program we stress innovative thinking. Both have almost all the advantages of "critical thinking", in terms of providing a solid foundation/process for examination, exploit meta-cognition in processing and look deeper into what a problem is about. But they also focus on the need to actual solve a problem and recognize the need to move forward even if its not the ideal answer.

 

What is ITEL3? I've not seen that one.

It has been fun at the places where I've stated this to large crowds to get into the debate of critical vs analytical vs creative vs innovative thinking. Its so often motherhood and apple pie type everyone is being supportive. I usually start with a poll of the audience asking how many think its important and how many teach it. Its the a shock when I move on and says is bad. Even more fun when I explain why it is bogus.

My favoriate is when someone in the "critical" supporting crowd members, generally from Tier 1 schools go ad hominem and make comments about my background, without knowing much (i.e. assuming stuff probably since I'm at a small school that is not on their academic pedigree radar). The fun is when I get to blow them out of the water point out their poor critical thinking skills (ad hominem is rarely good) , providing them facts about my accomplishments (I've been at ivy and endowed/department chair at top 25 schools before, been involved in three startups and have products in the field). I talk about the difference between what many think/teach "critical thinking' to be, and what it generally means in a business. Then I explain I'm just using"critical thinking" to analyze the value of current practices in teaching critical thinking -- and giving it a failing grade.


The split of STEM and professional folks vs Liberal arts in the room becomes apparent very quickly. The Philosophers, historians and literature profs are all attacking me, and dig themselves into a deep hole. The STEM and professional folks take a while to see the points, but I've converted many "STEM/professional" folks from supporters of "critical thinking" to doubters.
I'm alway happy to see Leading companies pushing the need for STEM.. because parents often don't get it.

2k1Toaster... I'm sure you could find "smart people".. just not smart qualified, there are plenty of "smart people" who were/are not willing to do the hard work needed to succeeded in STEM fields.

 

I wouldn't recommend engineering to my kids related to the ease and huge cost benefits of off-shoring jobs to India, China, ... And the last job I'd ever consider is the unstable US auto industry.

 

are there a lot of empty seats in the engineering schools, or are they all being drafted by google?

 

I hear that first part all the time. Do you know why you never hear of anyone laying off 1000 psychologists, or 1000 english majors, or 1000 communication majors? Because almost noone hires that many of them, or if they do its inspite of their major, not because of it.

Look into the Labor Statistics and you'll find despite the many news stories, the unemployment rates for qualified STEM professionals (except maybe BS in biology) is much much lower than most other fields. If nothing else the US needs engineers to manage the projects the do get off-shored.

I do agree about manufacturing/labor jobs being a poor future, but that is not the same as skilled science and engineering.

@bisco STEM enrollment nationwide is about 15-20% of all college students. (but represent about 30% of bachelor degrees awarded. Six year gradution rate for STEM majors is about 63% compared to 55% for other BA/BS majors.. and not all college students are seeking a bachelor degree, may aim for Associates degrees)

Most engineering colleges I know could handle a 30-40% increase in enrollments very rapidly -- maybe even more if the students were prepared.
At my school, applications for STEM and CS has gone up 20% or so in the past 2 years, but enrollment by only 10% because too many are unprepared and cannot be admitted. Many of the students do so poor on the math placement exam its 2 years before they could take calculus.

Places like Goggle, MS (who one of my friends has > 1000 unfilled engineering positions) are generally not directly hiring students without a degree. Even a degree is alone is not enough as they want skills and not all degrees are the same.

 

Let me get this straight: a bozo exec of a company that exists on the government dole and hopes to prosper by selling petrol guzzlers wants me to take him seriously ?

 

Yup. We're suppose to believe the hype without question. Sadly, that is indeed what has been happening too. It never ceases to amaze me how people take some exec's promises at facevalue, not bothering to consider what's realistic or what's actually needed or past market history... which is likely why they continue to spew what we want to hear.

Thank goodness not all automaker execs are like that.

 

I find this really interesting, the apparent disconnect between ability and college major choice. My son is a physics/math major at our local state uni, and he also mentions that it was common to see students in his freshman and sophomore classes who have no chance of passing.

What is going on ?

 

I discovered in law school that anyone entering with a degree in engineering, could get a full ride scholarship (loan payoff) if upon passing the bar (by 2nd time) you would agree to a 4 year commitment to certain companies. One of my chem engineer buddies turned it down to go where the big money was ... family law. Priorities (shaking head)

 

SageBrush

I don't have hard data on what is going on -- wish I did. My ancedotal evidence is that its a mix of three things.

First is students not even thinking about stuff until its too late to catch up -- some of the students in my class said they did not even think about what to major in until senior year of high-school.

Second is that engineering is not something they are really exposed to, and given the harder work that is needed, something many are not choosing. Project Lead the Way in CO has been doing outreach and had a positive impact on the number of Mechnical Engineering students (the PLTW is mostly ME material, because its hands on and something easy for HS physics folks to teach). PLTW has shown that getting HS students to really understand engineering, and that the students can do it, rather than just science/engineering is fun "weekend" type events is very effective.


The thrid part is that is in large part the teaching-to lowered standards driven by "no child left behind"... the easy way to ensure no one is left behind is to slow down the leaders and put more resources into the laggards.
For example, I met with some frustrated parents a few weeks ago who were seeking advice because their son was in the same math course as last year because the school did not have enough students/resources to offer trig for Calc, so they are he and his friend are doing Algebra again. They came to see us us because we have an agreement with a program that allows HS students to take some courses at the university, and the state pays most of their tuition. I currently have 3 high schools students working in my university lab and taking classes. One of my best undergrads, who has published 3 papers already, started with me in HS. So its not that today's student's don't have what it takes, just that many schools are not preparing them to do it.

 

Engineering today, is viewed more as a commodity (IEEE) rather than a profession, which is really sad. This is also seen in the s/w engineering professions. Need proof: IBM "outsourcing" domestic talent to India and China. Then IBM "pink slips" domestic engineers for their talents are not longer needed.

IBM is not alone in this regard, GNCs are doing this on a massive scale. Salaries and pension (or the lack therof) can be had at rock bottom prices outside of the U.S.

DBCassidy